There are a number of applications where it is desirable to provide a safety gate for the protection of infants, small children, animals and the like.
It is further conventional to provide such safety gates with the ability to be mounted within a doorway and to provide expandable devices for adjusting the width of the safety gate frame to both accommodate doorways of different widths and to provide a reliable compression fit.
It is also desirable to provide such gates to have the capability of being positioned between a banister post and a wall, for example which is located at a top of a staircase, to prevent infants and small children, as well as small animals and infirm persons, from entering upon the staircase and thereby exposing themselves to potential injury.
It is further desirable to provide a latching mechanism which is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for infants and young children to operate, but may be operated by older children and adults with relative ease in view of the fact that there are many occasions in which the safety gate must be opened at least temporarily for valid and non-threatening purposes.
It is also desirable to provide such safety gates with self-closing capabilities and further to provide an alert condition in cases where the safety gate has not been properly closed and latched.